Asleep in Jesus, wondrous sleep

Written in 1871 by Godfrey Thring, this burial hymn consists of six stanzas of four lines each. It was first published in Prebendary Hutton's Lincoln Supply in 1871, and was reprinted with musical accompaniment the following year in Henry Hugo Pierson's Hymn Tunes (2nd Series, 1872). Thring subsequently included the text in his own volume, Hymns and Sacred Lyrics, in 1874.

The hymn was originally incorporated into the first edition of Thring's Collection in 1880 as No. 233. However, when the second edition of his hymnal appeared in 1882, Thring replaced his original standalone text with a composite arrangement. This new arrangement opened with the initial stanza of Margaret Mackay's famous hymn "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep" and was followed by five altered stanzas drawn from Thring's 1871 composition.